Naomi's Naked Photos (Symbol)
To scrape by financially, twenty-three-year-old college student Naomi sells naked photos of herself online. Sex, as the old adage goes, sells. And Naomi's naked photos symbolize her desperation and the commodification of sex. Without the money she derives from the photos and also from Peter, Naomi would be destitute.
Age Gaps (Motif)
Several couples in the novel have a significant age gap between them. However, Peter (the novel's main character) expresses disgust over Ivan and Margaret's age gap, symbolizing his hypocrisy and broader societal discomfort over romantic relationships with age gaps.
Peter and Sylvia's Relationship (Symbol)
Though Peter and Sylvia genuinely care for one another, they also come to symbolize "unsatisfiable desires" to one another (Chapter 3). This is because Sylvia's chronic pain renders her unable to have a fully realized sexual relationship. Neither her body nor her dignity can handle it. For that reason, Peter and Sylvia are reminders to each other of what could have been.
Peter's Rules (Symbol)
Peter's arbitrary rules of what constitutes "normal" symbolize his need for control. Ultimately, this need for control is a coping strategy, but it inevitably harms the people that he is close to, including Naomi, Sylvia, and Ivan. In Chapter 17, Naomi informs Peter that he treats people like toys in a child's game. Similarly, Sylvia declares that she refuses to let Peter use her for his own emotional purposes because she is "a human being" (Chapter 15). This shows how Peter relies on others to regulate emotions he feels incapable of facing alone.
Christmas (Symbol)
Intermezzo ends around the Christmas holiday, which symbolizes love and togetherness. After falling out at the start of the novel, Ivan and Peter reunite during Christmas time, showing the power of the holiday to bring people together.
